Taiwan closes Lebanon pager explosion case, no local involvement found

Taipei, Nov. 11 (CNA) The Shilin District Prosecutors Office said Monday that no businesses or individuals in Taiwan were found to be involved in deadly attacks on militant group Hezbollah in September in its investigation into a local company reported to have supplied pagers that exploded and caused serious casualties in Lebanon.

The prosecutors office in Taipei announced its findings in a statement on its decision to close the case launched Sept. 18, after media reports linked Taiwanese electronics maker Gold Apollo Co. to multiple pager explosions the previous day.

Gold Apollo was implicated in foreign media reports because of the trademark found on fragments of the exploded pagers.

The New Taipei-based company said in statements on Sept. 18 that the AR-924 model of pager identified in the explosions were designed, manufactured and sold solely by a company in Hungary called BAC Consulting KFT.

Gold Apollo's trademark was on the pagers' label, because of a licensing deal it signed with BAC Consulting KFT for the use of its trademark in certain regions, the company said.

The Taiwanese company and three other locations were searched on Sept. 19, while Gold Apollo Chairman Hsu Ching-kuang (許清光) and a former employee surnamed Wu (吳) who had worked as a liaison for BAC Consulting KFT in Taiwan were questioned by prosecutors.

The prosecutors office's findings released on Monday confirmed Gold Apollo's statements in September that the AR-924 pagers were manufactured outside Taiwan and its trademark displayed on those products because of a licensing deal the company signed on June 9, 2022.

Gold Apollo only tested samples of the initially manufactured AR-924 model and did not provide technical assistance or support regarding the model to BAC Consulting KFT, which was identified as a subsidiary of "the multinational group Frontier Group Entity" in the prosecutors office's statement.

The Customs has no records of Gold Apollo or any other companies having imported or exported AR-924 model pagers, the prosecutors office said.

No evidence showed Hsu or his employees assisted with or were aware of the explosions involving the AR-924 model pager, the office added.

Wu, who worked for the Frontier Group Entity on a consulting contract, had communicated with her contacts at the group and foreign agents regarding transactions relating to the AR-924 model, but "has never been involved in the decision-making process" and was not given information identifying buyers or where the pagers were made, the prosecutors office said.

The office therefore concluded that Wu had "not participated in any conspiracy or collaboration related to the explosion incidents," it said.

Since "there is no evidence indicating any domestic manufacturers or individuals were involved with the explosions, violating the Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, or engaged in other illegal activities," the prosecutors office said it had decided to close the case.

The office further said its findings and decision to close the case should serve "as a clear indication that Taiwan was not involved in the pager explosion incidents in Lebanon."

According to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report on Sunday, the explosions of pagers and other hand-held communication devices killed nearly 40 people and wounded nearly 3,000 in Lebanon and Syria across two days.

Hezbollah blamed Israel for the explosions, but Israel had not claimed responsibility until Sunday, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed to the AFP that "he greenlighted the pager operation in Lebanon" through his spokesperson.